JEREMY RANCH GOLF COURSE SCHEDULED TO OPEN IN APRIL

The Jeremy Ranch Golf Course will be open for business during the 1989 golf season, according to information released at a press conference Wednesday by a management group that will operate the beleagured course under a lease agreement with the owners.

James F. Bailey, president of Sports Charities Consortium, Inc., a Utah corporation, said that his group has held discussions over the winter with Fourth Princess Anne Properties, the owner of the Jeremy Ranch development project, "And I'm here to announce to you the successful conclusion of those negotiations."Bailey said Sports Charities Consortium signed an agreement to operate the golf course, club house and restaurant for a six and a half month period, commencing April 15 and ending Oct. 31.

Play will be open to the public, on either a season pass or per-round basis. Cost for a season pass will be $875 for a single, $1,000 for a family, and $2,500 for a corporate pass. Per-round 18-hole rates (without cart) will be $35 on weekends and $30 on weekdays.

The head professional and director of golf will be Lanny Nielsen. Nielsen was the Jeremy Ranch's first golf professional, and played a key role with Ed Seay and Arnold Palmer in designing the course. He was replaced when the lending institutions that financed the original project moved in to operate the property four seasons ago.

Those lending institutions, from Virginia, under the name of Fourth Princess Anne Properties, shut down their own hands-on golf course operations last fall - a move that brought about this season's leasee situation.

Several hundred people holding Jeremy Ranch Golf Club memberships are left in limbo by this arrangement. The Sports Charities Consortium - a private, outside entity - has no allegiance to those members. Lawsuits are anticipated from groups of members when the golf course is open in April, petitioning the courts, and the owners, for lost rights.

"We have nothing to do with that," said Bailey. "We have come onto the scene realizing there is no club. We will be indemnified against any actions."

Bailey said that his group will run the annual Showdown Classic golf tournament again this summer. The Showdown Classic is a Senior PGA event that has been held traditionally at Jeremy Ranch.

Bailey said there would be a limit on the number of season passes sold, but said that limit hadn't been established; he also said there would be limited open public play, but didn't say how limited; and he said there would continue to be some corporate tournaments that would, on such occasions, close the course to the public and to season pass holders.

Named as the new head greenskeeper was Scott Polychronis, currently the assistant greenskeeper at The Pointe At South Mountain in Phoenix. Longtime Jeremy Ranch greenskeeper Riley Stottern recently accepted a position in Las Vegas.